Medieval Poet As Voyeur Looking and Listening in Medieval Love-Narratives

Looking has had a central place in recent thought about power and gender. In his new book, leading medievalist A. C. Spearing provides the only study of the many scenes of secret watching and listening in medieval love-stories, and of the way that the central importance of these scenes encourages both the poets and their readers to imagine themselves as voyeurs in relation to what they read. It examines medieval and modern (including Freudian) theories of looking and listening, and offers a series of readings of medieval romances and dream-poems, including works by poets such as Chaucer and Chrétien de Troyes as well as some less well-known narratives. While psychoanalytic in approach, Professor Spearing's study remains true to the life of the medieval stories, and creates a running dialogue between them and modern theory.Spearing, A. C. is the author of 'Medieval Poet As Voyeur Looking and Listening in Medieval Love-Narratives' with ISBN 9780521410946 and ISBN 0521410940.